First off, let me point out that this Avengers movie is very different from its predecessor. Now, if you remember, the first half of The Avengers is spent building up to the showdown with Loki. They could not work together as a team, and it took the death of a friend to bring them together. Age of Ultron, however (lets call it AoU for short), starts off with the team fully engulfed in a battle. All of the Avengers are working together, as a team, to take down a Hydra base.

FAIR WARNING. THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD.

The Twins

We meet the twins, Scarlett Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), surprisingly early into the movie. They've been working with Strucker, a head of Hydra, and have a personal hate for Tony Stark. When they hear The Avengers banging on their front door, they disappear into the fight. Pietro's powers are pretty self explanatory; he's a speedster, while his sister, Wanda, has telekinesis and mental manipulation. She has the ability to get inside peoples heads and make them live out their worst nightmares. She hits Stark first, and sets off the chain of events that will ultimately lead them to the battle against Ultron and his drones.

Banner + Romanoff

Now here's something weird; Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff. Right? Weird. It was insinuated when she went to give him a "lullaby" (I almost died, I thought I was about to watch Scarlett Johansson sing). Turns out Natasha is able to calm Bruce when he's in beast mode. It's actually one of the coolest things ever, especially seeing as prior to this there was no way documented for Bruce to return to normal after giving in to the Hulk. Through out the rest of the movie, you see Bruce and Natasha start to drift apart; she's pulling, trying to bring them closer together. But after Scarlett Witch plays with Banners mind, he looses control, and Iron Man is forced to fly in and stop him in the Hulk Buster suit . After this, the audience is let in on a little more of Natasha's background. There is a sweet moment between the two of them where Natasha reveals that she can't have children. The place where she trained to be as good as she is has a "ceremony" where she was made barren. Banner also officially reveals that he is unable to have children as well, even though that was hinted at in the first Avengers when him and Natasha met for the first time. Remember this scene?

Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) touching a crib in The Avengers.

He says "I don't always get what I want," and even thought it was a response to Natasha's comment about not breaking his "6 month without incident" streak, I believe that he was also thinking of the life he could have had. By the end of the movie, you think that they have worked things out and that Banner won't leave. But his fear of hurting Natasha is too much, and after the battle with Ultron, he disappears on a Quinjet.

Banner, Stark, and Artificial Intelligence.

As mentioned before, the first mind that Scarlett Witch gets into is Tony Starks. She shows him a world where all of his friends are dead, and that it was his fault. When the team gets back to the Avengers tower with Loki's Sceptre, he convinces Banner to help him use it to create artificial intelligence. This is where things get very interesting from a technological angle. Think of Ultron as a computer virus that can think for itself an obtain any information possible through the internet. Now, picture that program having a body and a mind deluded to the point that it cannot distinguish the difference between creation and destruction. That is what Banner and Stark unintentionally created, and the worst part of it is that they didn't tell the rest of the team what they were up to. This was part of Scarlet Witch's plan to tear the Avengers apart. When it was revealed that Tony and Banner were the ones who created Ultron, it turns members of the team against each other.

Thor choke-slamming Tony Stark.

I guess the real question is this; can we hold Tony completely responsible for what happened with Ultron? Yes, he and Banner kept it from the team. But it was Scarlet Witch that got inside his head and showed him what he feared the most. He was only doing what he thought was right to protect the world and ultimately, his friends.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as Iron Man.

Ultron

So, lets talk about Ultron, the big bad metal wolf of The Avengers: AoU. He is the ultimate baddie, so far. Fighting against him makes Loki and New York look like child's play. Ultron is insane, powerful, and manipulative. He has this idea in his head that the only way the world will know peace is with The Avengers extinction. He wants to erase humanity from the face of the earth, and states later in the movie that "the only thing living on Earth will be metal." I mean, I knew Ultron was going to be dark. But goddamn. I think the thing that makes his insanity even scarier is how much he believes he is right. He's not like Loki, who simply wanted to rule Earth for whatever reason he had come up with in his head. This is something that genuinely thinks that what he is doing is the right thing.

Again, lets look at this from a technological angle. I think what resonated most with me from this movie is that something like this could actually happen. Not in todays age, probably. But with advancements in science and leaps in research and development, in the future we could face a problem like this. The best way to describe Ultron (least, from this movie) is that he is a virus that can think, act, and have his own opinions, views and morals. He also has a body made up of Vibranium, can access any piece of information that can be found on the internet (so, everything), and is ridiculously powerful. So, it's kind of like getting a Trojan horse on your computer, giving it a body that is almost indestructible, and then giving it access to mass amounts of intelligence on top of it. Have fun with that.

Ultron (voiced by James Spader).

Vision

Vision is a very interesting new character that Joss Whedon decided to add to The Avengers. He is Ultrons prodigal son that was originally made to destroy The Avengers, but instead helps them defeat Ultron. Vision is a synthetic humanoid who can control his own density. He also has the Mind Stone, one of six Infinity Stones. Its the little yellow jewel on his forehead. Turns out, this is the source of power in Loki's sceptre, not the Tesseract. When Ultron gives it to Vision, it elevates his mind to one that is even higher than Ultrons. He understands Ultrons point of view but he also realized that being among the humans, seeing the grace in their failures, is priceless. He fights for life, and Ultron does not.

Vision (Paul Bettany) in The Avengers: Age of Ultron

Black Panther

I heard Vibranium and Wakanda, and I have never piped up so quick in my life. And I was already pretty pumped for this movie, so you can imagine. Hearing those two words in one sentence means only one thing; Black Panther's a'coming. Yes, we all know that Marvel already announced that his movie is going to be part of Phase 3, and he will be in Captain America: Civil War. But actually seeing and hearing it, fills me with so much excitement that I literally can't even begin to really deal with this. For those of you reading who are unfamiliar with Black Panther, he is a super hero from the hidden kingdom Wakanda, which is the only place known on Earth to get Vibranium. And for those of you that have been reading this wondering what the hell Vibranium is, thats the stuff that Cap's shield is made out of. It absorbs vibrations and sends it back in one hell of a wave. Remember this scene in The Avengers when Cap told Thor to "put the hammer down"?

Yeah. Vibranuim. That stuff. The bigger the hit, the harder it sends it back, and Wakanda is the only place on Earth to get it. T'Challa, The Black Panther, is a brilliant tactician, strategist, scientist, tracker and a master of all forms of unarmed combat whose unique hybrid fighting style incorporates acrobatics and aspects of animal mimicry. His senses and physical attributes also have been heightened to superhuman levels. He protects Wakanda, but with a Civil war coming up soon he may be needed sooner rather than later. Look out for him in Captain America: Civil War, and get stoked for his stand-alone movie in 2018.

Promo poster for Marvel's Black Panther

Infinity Stones

Okay, we all know what movies are going to be in Marvels Phase 3. Y'know, unless you've been living under a rock or something. The Avengers movie that comes at the end of the set of stand-alone movies is going to be split into two. With the Mind Stone being the 4th stone discovered, it's only a guessing game as to where the other two, Time and Soul, will be discovered. In a brief description, these six gems (Time, Soul, Power, Reality, Mind, and Space) were the most powerful and completely indestructible stones in the universe. They were scattered, but Thanos is trying to bring them all back together. If you remember at the end of Ultron, the teaser shows Thanos picking up the empty Infinity Gauntlet, saying "I'll do it myself." But here's something interesting that I'll leave you with. The Gauntlet that Thanos picked up? It's not the same one that is in Odins Vault.

With four of the six Infinity Stones already found, there are only two more to be found. After that, there are 10 different movies for Thanos to get his hands on the Infinity Stones and destroy the universe.

Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin)

There you have it, guys. My review of Avengers: Age of Ultron with some theories and hopes to go along with it. Lets take a breather, and prepare for the next Phase of Marvels Cinematic Universe. Next up, Ant-Man. Thanks for Reading!